THE
five [Israelis] are
said to have had been caught
videotaping the disaster and
shouting in what was
interpreted as cries of joy
and
mockery.

Monday, September 17, 2001 Elul 29,
5761 Israel Time: 00:01 (GMT+3)

Five
Israelis detained for "puzzling behavior"
after WTC tragedy

By Yossi Melman

FIVE Israelis who had
worked for a moving company based in New
Jersey are being held in U.S. prisons for
what the Federal Bureau of Investigation
has described as "puzzling behavior"
following the terror attack on the World
Trade Center in New York last Tuesday. The
five are expected to be deported sometime
soon.

The families of the five, who asked
that their names not be released, said
that their sons had been questioned by the
FBI for hours on end, had been kept in
solitary confinement for three days, and
had been humiliated, stripped of their
clothes and blindfolded.

The mother of one of the young men
explained the chain of events as she
understands it to Ha'aretz:

She said that the five had worked for
the company, which is owned by an Israeli,
for between two months and two years. They
had been arrested some four hours after
the attack on the Twin Towers while
filming the smoking skyline from the roof
of their company's building, she said. It
appears that they were spotted by one of
the neighbors who called the police and
the FBI.

The mother said that the families and
friends of the five in Israel had known
nothing of the men's whereabouts for a
number of days.

"When they finally let my son make a
phone call for the first time to a friend
in the United States two days ago, he told
him that he had been tortured by the FBI
in a basement," the mother said. "He was
stripped to his underwear; he was
blindfolded and questioned for 14 hours.
They thought that because he has
citizenship of a European country as well
as of Israel that he was working for the
Mossad [Israel's secret
service]."

Seven FBI agents later stormed the
apartment of one of the Israelis, searched
it and questioned his roommate. The
Israeli owner of the company, who has U.S.
citizenship, was also questioned. Both men
were subsequently released.

The families here complained that the
Israeli consulate in New York and the
situation room set up by the Foreign
Ministry there to locate missing Israelis
had done nothing to help their sons. The
Foreign Ministry told the families that
the FBI had denied holding the five and
that the consulate had chosen to believe
the FBI, the mother said.

The five were transferred out of the
FBI's facility on Saturday morning and are
now being held in two prisons in New
Jersey by the Immigration and
Naturalization Services. They are charged
with illegally residing in the United
States and working there without
permits.

The Foreign Ministry said in response
that it had been informed by the consulate
in New York that the FBI had arrested the
five for "puzzling behavior." They are
said to have had been caught videotaping
the disaster and shouting in what was
interpreted as cries of joy and
mockery.